On this date...

In 17891, Major General Nathanael Greene and 1,000 Patriots attempt an attack on the critical village of Ninety Six in the South Carolina backcountry. After failing to seize the fortified settlement, they began a siege of it, which lasted until their retreat on June 18, making it the longest siege of the Revolutionary War.

In 1802, the first First Lady of the United States, Martha Washington passes away at Mount Vernon. She died of a severe fever. She is buried with President Washington at their home.

In 1849, Future U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was granted a patent for a boat-lifting device; he was the only U.S. president to have a patent.

In 1856, Southern Congressman Preston Brooks beats Northern Senator Charles Sumner in the halls of Congress as tensions rise over the expansion of slavery.

In 1962, Continental Airlines Flight 11, en route from Chicago to Kansas City, Missouri, crashed near Unionville, Missouri, after a passenger ignited dynamite on board the plane, killing all 45 occupants of the Boeing 707.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, speaking at the University of Michigan, outlined the goals of his “Great Society,” saying that it “rests on abundance and liberty for all” and “demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.”

In 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard, flew within nine miles of the moon’s surface in a “dress rehearsal” for the first lunar landing.

In 1985, U.S. sailor Michael L. Walker was arrested aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz, two days after his father, John A. Walker Jr., was apprehended by the FBI; both were later convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. (Michael Walker served 15 years in prison and was released in 2000; John Walker Jr. died in prison in 2014.)

In 1972, President Nixon became the first US President to visit Moscow.

In 2011, One of the deadliest tornados in US history struck Joplin, Missouri killing 160 people.